It is admittedly easy to look back in hindsight and make judgments – but this column takes a stark and direct approach to that question today.
I accept that someone can genuinely feel that something has been inflicted on them, and cannot sleep soundly knowing that a man has been, for all intents and purposes, convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, and that he will pay for his crimes for the rest of his life. I am also fully aware that the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case – set to decide the penalty, and be free to add life behind bars to his convictions for murder and rape – was blind.
However, taking on board all those things mentioned above, my feelings on the day of the verdict are that jury (and that could have been jurors of any colour) made the right decision, and should not be blamed.
However, so-called “jurors of conscience” and some in the media are now pointing to its alleged failings as “evidence” that the system is not fit for purpose.
In my opinion, those who are making all sorts of irresponsible and incendiary comments in the media and social media are doing nothing more than waste the time of the public, and in particular, members of the jury, by pandering to those who believe in the adage “proof beyond reasonable doubt”.
Why, after all, should the woman who was left with severe burns on her arms, abdomen and face, to the extent that she is physically unable to lift her grandchildren, have to undergo the mental torture of having to consider whether Rittenhouse was guilty of those hideous acts?
What has the public got to gain from ganging up on the system that supposedly is meant to protect all of us, when many of these allegations of abuse against men come from former wives?
Oathgivers and spiritual awakeners that I know believe that there is a higher power that is fully responsible for whatever happens in this life, and there is very little point searching for the purpose of these trials and tribulations in a world that rewards greed, self-enrichment and egoism at the expense of selflessness and collective well-being.
Above all, let us keep it real – and not blame the system that has acknowledged the abuses of too many men, by, and in order to prove this case against Rittenhouse.
Mr Rittenhouse is the victim. It is society, and society’s responses to its failures, that is the problem.